FICTION
White Noise | Delillo
That Hideous Strength | Lewis
Little Bee | Cleave
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | Foer
The Magicians | Grossman
The Sound and the Fury | Faulkner
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Diaz
This Must Be the Place | Racculia
The Heart of the Matter | Greene
Right Ho, Jeeves | Wodehouse
Red Hook Road | Waldman
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman | Gaines
Sima’s Undergarments for Women | Stanger-Ross
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest | Larsson
The Cookbook Collector | Goodman
The Go-Between | Hartley
The Metamorphosis | Kafka
Perelandra | Lewis
The Optimist’s Daughter | Welty*
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky | Durrow*
Remembering | Berry
Portnoy’s Complaint | Roth
Descent Into Hell | Williams
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Murakami
The Last Gentleman | Percy
The Girl who Played with Fire | Larsson
The Thirty-Nine Steps | Buchan
The Postmistress | Blake
Out of the Silent Planet | Lewis
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Chabon*
Death Comes for the Archbishop | Cather
Imperfect Birds | Lamott
The Heights | Hedges
Song of Solomon | Morrison
Olive Kitteridge | Strout*
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Larsson*
The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Kundera*
CHILDREN’S/YA
The Christmas Mystery | Gaarder*
An Abundance of Katherines | Green*
Winnie-the-Pooh | Milne
Horrid Henry | Simon
Troubling a Star | L’Engle
Jackson Jones | Kelley
Paper Towns | Green
Pippi Longstocking | Lindgren*
A Ring of Endless Light | L’Engle*
The Young Unicorns | L’Engle*
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle | MacDonald*
Turtle in Paradise | Holm
The Moon by Night | L’Engle
The Family Under the Bridge | Carlson*
The Tales of Beedle the Bard | Rowling
The Children of Noisy Village | Lindgren
When You Reach Me | Stead
Kit: An American Girl | Tripp
A Bear Called Paddington | Bond
The Book Thief | Zusak*
Meet the Austins | L’Engle
CHRISTIAN / SPIRITUAL
Christianity & Liberalism | Machen*
Washed & Waiting | Hill*
When Helping Hurts | Corbett & Fikkert
Outlive Your Life | Lucado
A Scandalous Freedom | Brown
Dogmatics in Outline | Barth*
The Enchiridion | Augustine*
The Sacred Journey | Buechner
Anne Bradstreet | Kellogg
Spiritual Parenting | Anthony
Evangelism: Doing Justice & Preaching Grace | Conn
Formational Children’s Ministry | Beckwith
Offering the Gospel to Children | Pritchard*
Through His Eyes | Barrs*
The Hole in Our Gospel | Stearns*
Stuff Christians Like | Acuff
Plan B | Wilson
The Supper of the Lamb | Capon*
Patched Together | Manning
The Prodigal God | Keller
A Praying Life | Miller
The Quotidian Mysteries | Norris*
Holiness | Webster*
From Fear to Freedom | Miller
MEMOIR
Love is a Mix Tape | Sheffield
You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know | Sellers
Becoming Odyssa | Davis
Orange is the New Black | Kerman*
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress | Janzen*
The Glass Castle | Walls*
Eating for Beginners | Rehak
The Midwife | Worth*
The Year of Magical Thinking | Didion*
Rock & Roll Will Save Your Life | Almond
OTHER NON-FICTION
Cinderella Ate My Daughter | Orenstein
Earth (the Book) | Stewart
On Writing | Welty
Your Six-Year-Old | Ames & Ilg
The Mind’s Eye | Sacks*
Absence of Mind | Robinson
Shop Class as Soulcraft | Crawford*
A Framework for Understanding Poverty | Payne
This Is a Soul | Berger
The Death and Life of the Great American School System | Ravitch
The Truth Will Set You Free | Miller
Rising Road | Davies*
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Skloot*
The Tipping Point | Gladwell
Life is a Miracle | Berry*
* Top Picks in Each Category
108 books, which doubles the next-best year I’ve had since keeping track. A small blessing out of chronic pain induced insomnia!
I read a bunch of L’Engle too. Love the Austins!
I had never read them all! I am reading through her canon, a few more this year – fiction and non.
I got hung through An Acceptable Time and House Like A Lotus … just. I got hung up during Certain Women. Maybe I should pick them back up. I usually like L’Engle, but those two bother me.
That’s an extraordinary list, Kristen!
I read L’Engle too this year- just happened to run across several at the library book sale. Loved A Wrinkle in Time, but was very disappointed by House Like a Lotus and sorta disappointed with Troubling a Star… I look forward to finishing the Wrinkle series. She’s much better at sci-fi.
The other Austin books and Arm of the Starfish (read it before Ring of Endless Light) are worth reading … I like them better than the Wrinkle series. It will help Troubling a Star make more sense too.
I think her books that are written more to younger and less wrestling with difficult ideas are often better, but that’s probably because we come from different theological perspectives and come up with different results to the plot.
Maybe I’ll try and pick up the Wrinkle books this year … and try Certain Women again.
I am going to read another of her non-fiction books and a small rain / a severed wasp this year. I haven’t tried certain women…